Byronic hero

Cultural  

1. A kind of hero found in several of the works of Lord Byron. Like Byron himself, a Byronic hero is a melancholy and rebellious young man, distressed by a terrible wrong he committed in the past.

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Example Sentences

Mena’s nimbleness was a large part of what gave the overture to Schumann’s 1848 “Manfred” the humanity required to hear the composer’s heart in the chest of the Byronic hero.

From Washington Post • Nov. 12, 2021

As writer Rebecca Traister pointed out on Twitter, a woman who abandoned her family for "self-discovery tours" would be regarded as a selfish monster, not a Byronic hero.

From Salon • Mar. 14, 2019

Singers can also have a harder time separating themselves from their made-up rock n’ roll persona – whether party animal or Byronic hero.

From Forbes • Jan. 28, 2015

Wearing a wavy wig that makes him look like a cross between a Byronic hero and a disheveled bumpkin, Mr. Polenzani is an endearing Nemorino.

From New York Times • Sep. 25, 2012

He is not a Byronic hero with a terrible but misty past.

From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by Saintsbury, George